Renato “Babalu” Sobral plans to coach full-time when he calls it a career in MMA.

But for now, he must pass on an opportunity to help a longtime teammate and instead will focus on the Bellator Season 8 tournament.

Sobral, a 15-year veteran and former Strikeforce champ, will not serve as an assistant coach to Fabricio Werdum on the second addition of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” which is set to begin filming later this month.

Sobral took the role as the wrestling coach to Wanderlei Silva on the first international edition of the show, which wrapped this past April. But the Brazilian is focusing on his career at this point.

“I can’t train and teach and coach at the same time over there,” he told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “I thought last time I could train and teach. But if you go down there as a coach, you have to only coach.”

Sobral (37-9 MMA, 0-0 BFC) meets Mikhail Zayats (19-6 MMA, 0-0 BFC) in the opening round of Bellator’s tournament, which kicks off Jan. 17 for Bellator 85 at Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif. The fight is his first since a 31-second submission of Tatsuya Mizuno under the ONE FC banner in June, and prior to that, he spent a year-and-a-half on the bench following a first-round KO loss to Dan Henderson in Strikeforce.

It’s also been more than a decade since Sobral fought in a tournament, when winners were decided in one night. Most of his first 10 wins were earned under the format.

“It’s a really fine line between giving a show and winning,” he said. “You have to save yourself for the next fight. To be in this format is a challenge for me and makes me very excited about it.

“Because fighting one night, you don’t feel much. If you have something that breaks, you can just keep going. If you fight and then you go home and cool down and the swelling comes back up and then you have to go have to go back and train to fight in six weeks, that’s a new thing.

“I have to use my experience on this. That’s where I think I’m going to have a big advantage.”

The teammates from his gym, Babalu’s Iron Gym, will be there in support as he attempts to win another major title.

For more on both the UFC and Bellator’s upcoming schedules, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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